16 Dec 2020

BEETHOVEN: Bagatelles Op 119

From Music Alive, 8:02 pm on 16 December 2020

This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.

Performed by Michael Houstoun at his recital celebrating the the 250th birthday of Beethoven

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Photo: Poster art

Michael Houstoun talks to Eva Radich about his Beethoven recital

The publisher who originally commissioned the Op 109 Bagatelles was, to say the least, disappointed. He refused to publish them.

Another publisher did put them out however and impressions were favourable, one reviewer writing: "A rapid glance shows us eleven pieces of music on a small scale; but an infinite amount lies bewitched in their magic circle! They contain few musical words, but much is said with them. To us these eleven bagatelles seem veritable little pictures of life."

The term "Bagatelle" was first coined musically by François Couperin to describe a brief and concentrated piece of solo music with no definite form.

Beethoven deepened the genre with many calling his bagatelles the "first character pieces in the 19th century." Schumann and Grieg in their piano works both owe a lot to Beethoven.

Recorded by RNZ Concert in Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, 16 December 2020
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineer: Adrian Hollay

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